International Conference on Engineering Design Iced 97 Tampere, August 19-21, 1997 Automated Indexing of Design Concepts for Information Management

This study explores ways to increase both the usability and accuracy of design information retrieval and reuse. The DedalAI system attempts to achieve these goals by automatically indexing design concepts in electronic notebooks. DedalAI relies on a two part query structure: a descriptor, which is a generic design concept, and a subject, which is a specific part of a design model. DedalAI builds on the Dedal system [Baudin, et al 1993] by automating the indexing of the descriptor half of a query. It is assumed that a descriptor concept can be signaled by words in text related to the descriptor. This paper discusses the development of thesauri for descriptor detection and its application to two types of design documentation: electronic design notebooks and patents. This useful but simple approach can increase both precision and recall over Boolean keyword searches.